


home fires

by casualbird



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: BL Route Spoilers (CH 16), Baking, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Vignette, attempted hurt/comfort but mostly just hurt, no editing we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 23:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20348323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casualbird/pseuds/casualbird
Summary: In his words, a dash of hope:I could be something, too.Ashe welcomes Dedue home.





	home fires

It was Dedue’s life’s work, being unflappable. Steady as a practiced knife chopping vegetables, straight as the surface of a leveled cup of flour.

When Ashe handed him the parcel, wrapped in twine and baking parchment, he very nearly _flapped._

“Open it,” he’d urged, and Dedue’s hands did not shake as he complied.

“These are...”

“Cookies,” Ashe supplied, though it was obvious. “My mother’s recipe. Though... I had to make some tweaks. Sugar’s rationed, and there are currants instead of raisins. Grapes only grow in Adrestia, and... I’m sorry. I’m rambling.”

Dedue shook his head. They were still warm, radiating the same gentle fireside heat as his own cheeks, the palms of his hands. Ashe’s hedging smile, as if he didn’t know the depth of his own sweetness, as if he could possibly ever offend... well.

“I meant to ask,” Dedue murmured, “these are... for me?”

A nod. “My mother used to make these for me-- when I was upset. They remind me of my own home, and I, well, I don’t know any recipes from Duscur, so...”

Dedue chose, for both of their sakes, not to acknowledge the flush that bloomed over Ashe’s nose like sifted sugar.

“Well, I wanted to welcome you back. It can’t have been easy, everything you had to do to get here, and what you found when you did... The monastery isn’t really home to me, and I’m sure it’s not for you, but... it’s something.”

In his words, a dash of hope: _I could be something, too._

It was never supposed to happen that way. It was oil and water, it didn’t _fit._ Ashe was kind, though, to be free with his pity. They had been... difficult, his years on the run. He still struggled to find peace in an empty room, to sleep when every ounce of him cried out for vigilance. And His Highness, standing as he doubtless was that moment: eye-deep in his own wreckage...

Ashe had swept the hearth while he was gone, kept the home fire burning. But there was no time, no spare room to house this... this thing of his, of Dedue’s. It was best extinguished, the chimney swept clear.

For a moment, though, in the bleary dying light, Dedue could surely warm his hands. Could smile, and sigh, and light a torch to carry.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! i really hope you liked this, even though it's super short! i just really had to get these feelings onto some paper; they were running roughshod through my house and making a dreadful mess.
> 
> hello to friends from discord. thank god i finished this so i can move on to the other six things i promised you.
> 
> any and all feedback is cherished.


End file.
